June 2008 Andrew Gilroy took photos of underage boys A former local Pastor and youth worker has been jailed after being found guilty of taking pornographic pictues of underage boys. Andrew Gilroy had worked at the Syon Mission Church up until its closure in 2006. He admitted 13 charges relating to the offences. He would invite teenage boys back to his home and pay them £40 a time to take pictures of them. When police raided his house they found more than 3,000 indecent images. He first came to work in Brentford in 1995 as a youth worker and later moved to Ealing Road where many of the offences tool place. He was exposed when a friend of one of the boys he had taken pictures of found them on his computer, copied them and took them to the police. He was arrested in August 2006. His lawyer told Isleworth Crown Court that no coercion was involved and Gilroy had been struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality. He has been placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and banned from ever working with children. He paid them up to £40 a session and by the time police caught up with Gilroy, he had more than 3,000 indecent images of boys aged 16 and 17, prosecutor Peter Lancaster told Isleworth Crown Court. Bearded, bespectacled and bald, Gilroy admitted 13 charges – four of paying for the sexual services of a child, four of taking indecent photographs of a child, three of making indecent photographs, one of distributing them on the internet and one of possessing 3,471 indecent images of children between January 2006 and his arrest seven months later. Said to be in denial about his homosexuality, Gilroy was appointed to Brentford in 1995 as a youth worker before becoming a pastor. Mr Lancaster said: “Through his work and the various clubs connected to the church he met a number of young boys. “The first offence occurred when the main victim, who was 15 at the time, went to Gilroy’s then home in Ashford. “The defendant asked if he could take photographs and paid him £40. The photographs included pictures of the boy’s genitals.” The sessions continued when the boy was 16 and Gilroy had moved to Ealing Road in Brentford. Counsel said at least 200 pictures were taken then. Matters came to light when a friend of the main victim went to stay with Gilroy and came across photographs of his friend on the computer. He printed off some of the images and notified police. Gilroy was arrested in August 2006 and made full admissions. He was found to have about 1,500 images at level one (the lowest in seriousness), nearly 2,000 at level two and 83 at level four. Level five is the most serious. Two other boys of a similar age were pictured. His counsel, Piers Mostyn, said the boys took part willingly and there was no coercion beyond the money paid. He said: “He has struggled with his sexuality all his life but does accept he is homosexual.” Jailing him for three years, placing him on the sex offenders’ register for life and banning him from working with children, Judge Hezlett Colgan told him: “This was a serious breach of the trust placed in you as a pastor at your church.” Gilroy, of Old Ruislip Road, Northolt, resigned as a pastor after his arrest. The Syon Mission closed in November 2006.